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Hannover abandons plan to alternate process and production shows

01 June, 2004

The organisers of the Hannover Fair have abandoned their plan, announced last year, to alternate between shows with process and production automation themes. They say that because these technologies are converging "faster than expected", the Fair will now feature both factory automation and the Interkama process show every year.

According to a statement from Deutsche Messe AG, "the market has spoken its verdict - this year`s Hannover Fair [shown above] really hit the spot as the world`s only event covering the complete spectrum of industrial automation. What clinched it for suppliers and users from around the world, were the synergies created by the simultaneous presentation … of components and solutions for process automation and production automation."

The organisers say that "this full-spectrum coverage of the market proved especially appealing to customers - and exhibitors found international decision-makers flocking to their stands in much greater numbers than expected".

Deutsche Messe has therefore "reacted promptly" by "further refining the concept of the Hannover Fair". In future, all automation users will find what they need "each year, at the same time, and at the same place".

The core displays will be supplemented in odd-numbered years by two sub-shows - Motion, Drive and Automation (MDA), and Robotics and Materials Handling. In even-numbered years, there will be extra space devoted to process fittings and field devices, and to an area called Pipeline and Exploration.

Observers point out that MDA will be competing with the increasingly successful SPS/IPC/Drives show in Nuremberg, while the Robotics show will hope to attract back some of the exhibitors which left the Hannover Fair this year for the new Automatica show in Munich, close to the heart of the German automotive industry.

The first Automatica, held from 15-18 June, attracted 566 exhibitors form 22 countries, and around 17,000 visitors from 60 countries. The organisers claims that the biennial show is already the world`s largest trade fair for robotics and automation. The show was organised in collaboration with the robotics and automation section of the German engineering federation, VDMA. "In 2006, we want to attract worldwide attention for Automatica," says Thilo Brodtman, managing director of the VDMA Robotics + Automation.

Explaining the changes at Hanover, Dietmar Harting, who chairs of the Fair`s exhibitor committee, says that "the planning and conception of a world-class international trade fair is a dynamic process that can only work through sustained dialogue with exhibitors and visitors. Based on what we have learned this year, a holistic approach with clearly-defined keynote themes that rotate each year, is a logical continuation of the exhibition concept we have devised together."




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